Fate arrives at the door when least expected. Kevin Keath McMillan heard its cryptic knock the day he was let go from a corporate job at which he had faithfully toiled for most of his adult life. Suddenly he had no meetings to attend, no deadlines to make, no emergencies to quell. A rumbling silence had settled upon his senses---like the green-sky prelude to an Oklahoma tornado.A baby boomer, fifty years old, married, mortgage, responsibilities stacked like pancakes---what’s a guy to do when life gives him the big-business sayanora? He takes stock of his resources, reviews his options, assesses the needs of his household, has a moment of self-reflection and…buys a motorcycle?
Marketing and advertising had landed Kevin in a comfortable existence overseeing his employer’s advertising creative work in TV, radio, photography, and print arenas from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Now he had been re-org’d out of the company in the latest of its big-business-model experiments. The company's stainless steel elevator doors kissed silently shut behind him as the thought emerged that for once, after almost a quarter century of deadline-driven existence, he may have some time on his hands.
It struck him as odd now that, after traveling in excess of 500,000 business miles over the years from coast to coast and places in between, he had seen little more of this great country than the glass and tiled insides of airports, hotels, studios, and…elevators. There had to be more to life than another plastic room key card and a $6 airport hot dog. He was about to discover that the abrupt exit from his rewarding but stress-filled, phone-ringing corporate career had just opened a gateway to another life-----one on his own terms, beckoning in the form of two wheels and a BMW motorcycle.
It’s been described as “the closest thing to flying without leaving the ground”. Kevin calls it Land Flight. This collection of photographs chronicles a baby boomer’s return to motorcycling after a hiatus of well over twenty years. Like many boomers, the responsibility of marriage, kids, work, and life had nudged him into letting go of his first motorcycle many years ago. Life has turned full circle. A second revolution of sorts is emerging within this unique population segment. Each day, more boomers take up motorcycling and enjoy the grins and wonders this past-time brings. Yet many sit on the fence, still uncertain. Kevin, for one, embraces his mid-life crisis with unabashed enthusiasm and shows all of us what is yet possible if we allow ourselves to simply be…ourselves.
